A fundamental question facing any choir is how best to respect the individuality of each of its singers while getting them all to work together for the good of the group as a whole. In this sense, a choir is a microcosm of human social life. The voice is the most personal and individual form of human expression – we can recognize people within seconds by the sound of their voice alone. Yet when people join their voices together in a choir they cannot assert that full individuality without disrupting the communal voice of the collective.

Within the Western art tradition, it is generally seen as the conductor's job to manage the negotiations between the needs of the group as a whole and those of its individual members. John Bertalot, for example, tells directors:

Joseph Lewis, meanwhile, puts it this way: